On to game 4 of the Sunday quintupleheader, a classic matchup of two of the NFL's storied franchises: the Giants at the Bears.My first look at the Giants and the guy I still can't believe is the highest-paid player in football, Eli Manning. Did anybody watch the playoff game against Philadelphia 7 months ago? I'm surprised the Giants even kept Eli after that game. What has he ever done, besides hit a 3-4 week lucky streak two years ago that a superb defensive team cashed in for a championship?
Did the Ravens make Trent Dilfer the highest-paid player in football after winning their championship? Um, no, and I have little clue why the Giants did it with Eli. Maybe they're just trying to make it impossible for other teams to re-sign their actually-good QBs.
Seriously. I'd rate Eli Manning anywhere from 9th-best to 14th-best of all the QBs in the NFL. The Giants made him the highest-paid PLAYER? Ridiculous.
The Chicago crew of death-warmed-over-looking Sam Rosen and Erik Kramer with the call.
Bears receive the opening kickoff and we'll see Jay Cutler start off from the 25. Big cheer when he's announced on the PA. Bears have Matt Forte this week; he gets just 2 on 2 rushes, though. Cutler hangs in against a delayed corner blitz and threads the needle to Earl Bennett for a 25-yard catch-and-run. Threw it between two defenders. Short pass to Devin Hester for 10. Greg Olsen gets inside the Giant 30 with a swing pass. 2nd-2, Forte up the middle for a first. Chase Blackburn shuts him down on the next handoff. Olson drops the second down pass. Cutler misses Hester badly on third
and 10, probably expecting him to turn out when he turned in. Robbie Gould hits from 44 to give
Chicago an early lead.
Chicago 3, N.Y. Giants 0.
Danny Ware returns Gould's kick out to the 38, running through several Bear tackles in the process.
Here's the $100 million man. He hits Steve Smith for 4. Jacobs picks up 4 on second down and bangs
for 11 on 3rd and 2, running right through Brian Urlacher. 1st down at the Bear 45. Jacobs again for
5 up the middle. Jacobs around right end, where he's cut down for a loss by - PISA TINOISAMOA, giving up probably 30 lbs. 3rd-7. Eli gets forever to throw but has his nice pass broken up by Kevin Payne. Jeff Feagles is back for the millionth season to punt for New York BUT HE DAMN SURE BETTER NOT ACE OUT DONNIE JONES FOR THE PRO BOWL SPOT THIS YEAR.
Sliding catch at the 35 by Bennett for a first down. Forte bounces a run outside for 18. Bears are in no-huddle. After Forte gets stuffed, Cutler stands tall and hits a wide open Olson for 16. Ball at the Giants 32. Giants got caught zone blitzing that play, and got caught with their pants down the next play. Forte cuts back off a left-side run and bolts up the middle untouched for a 32-yard TD. Hmm, that's ORLANDO PACE's side, isn't it?
Chicago 10, N.Y. Giants 0.
Giants will try again from their 29. Manning throws to Jacobs over the middle for 16, then hits I believe Hakeem Nicks for 8 on the sideline. Jacobs punks Urlacher again on a handoff for about 10. First down at the Bear 44. Make it 49 after an illegal shift. Smart enough to take him on low, Pisa cuts down Jacobs for little gain for the second time. Short pass to Ahmad Bradshaw will leave 3rd-and-11. Alex Brown swoops around Dave Diehl at LT and swats the ball out of Eli's hand as the highest-paid player in football cluelessly cocks to throw, not knowing he's coming. Giants recover.
Bears will start in a hole after a penalty on the punt return, when the second quarter starts.
End of first quarter: Chicago 10, N.Y. Giants 0.
Specifically, the Bears start at their 8. Giants are stopping them up the middle; it's when Forte gets
outside that they're in real trouble. Cutler rolls right and has Hester open by 10 yards downfield but
throws too deep. C.C. Brown a lucky DB on that play. Cutler gets away with a ball over the middle into double coverage when Bennett is interfered with. Ball at the 32. Terrell Thomas drops a slant pass intended for Bennett. Cutler living dangerously here. Pass over the middle for Forte, who slips Blackburn and gains 9. 3rd-1. Cutler rolls right, throws against the grain and hits Hester for 4. Weird play for 3rd-and-1 but it got the job done. Cutler throws away a rollout screen on 2nd-and-6, then scrambles down to Giant 39 for 12 and another first down. Giants aren't even slowing the Bears down. Beautiful diving catch by Devin Aromashadu at the 3. Beat Bruce Johnson. Cutler has to blow a timeout on first-and-goal. Play action finds Desmond Clark running free in the back of the end zone for another Bears TD. They look NOTHING like they did in Buffalo last week; sure helps to have Forte back.
Chicago 17, N.Y. Giants 0.
Giants at their 20. They've been moving the ball - it's finishing off drives that's been the problem. Eli hits Steve Smith for 25 at the 45, and you know what? The Giants QB really looks good tonight. Waitress! One large order of crow over here! Just when I say that, Eli gets flagged for grounding trying to avoid Pisa on a blitz, then gets sacked on third down by Adowale Ogunleye after faking a draw to Jacobs. OK, Eli sucks again. Pisa is having such a good game tonight, btw, you wonder what the hell the Rams were doing with him the last 2-3 years, JIM HASLETT. Did Haslett ever blitz Pisa, for instance?
Bears take over now with Kevin Smith at RB and Caleb Hanie at QB. Hanie's third-down sideline pass is off by a country mile and forces Chicago's first punt of the night, which will be returned by Ganja Boy 2, Mario Manningham. He drops the punt and is lucky to recover at the 25.
Eli remains in and hits Manningham for 11. Bradshaw tries the left side but can't elude Alex Brown. On 3rd and 8, the blitz gets to Eli again and he throws a pass off of a Bear lineman's helmet. So it's not just the Rams having trouble picking up blitzes.
Bears get the ball back around their 15, and Kevin Jones plows up the middle for 10 on first down. He loses the ball on second down, and the Giants recover. I think Blackburn actually yanked Jones' hand off the ball.
David Carr takes the wheel for the G-Men and scrambles out of bounds for 4. Carr looks deep for Kevin Boss but he's locked down by Pisa and Payne. 3rd-6. Manningham maneuvers himself open inside the 5 on the sideline but Carr badly overthrows him. Tynes time. Feagles handles a low snap deftly to save a FG.
Chicago 17, N.Y. Giants 3.
Johnny Knox hits a seam at the 20 and accelerates out to midfield before a diving tackle by Tynes knocks him out of bounds. Jerris Wilkinson buries Hanie on a blitz for a huge loss. 2nd-21 at the 36. He sails a pass to Kellen Davis for 28 as Davis catches the back end of the ball (I love HDTV). Great throw and catch at the 2:00 warning.
Hanie barely misses Knox on a deep sideline go route. That's followed by a questionable run up the middle for Garrett Wolfe. 3rd-8, and the Bears are apparently in no hurry. A hold on CODY BELAGH knocks Chicago out of FG range, until Brandon Rideau breaks a tackle and takes an outside quick slant upfield for 20. First down at the Giant 24. Haney overthrows Aromashadu inside the 5. Wolfe ricochets for 10 on a draw play, and Hanie spikes with 0:29 left. The whole right side of the Bear line caves the Giants over to one side, leaving Hanie a huge hole up the middle to wish Kevin Shaffer hadn't been flagged for a hold to take his TD run away. 2nd-20. Wolfe speeds with a bubble screen
down inside the five, then loses the ball, and a teammate inadvertently kicks it through the back of the end zone for a touchback. Ouch.
Giants run us out to halftime as Bradshaw gets a cheap 17 off a delay handoff.
Halftime score: Chicago 17, N.Y. Giants 3.
Carr will have to rally his troops from the 18. Mark Anderson nearly sacks him on 2nd-7 before Josh Bullocks does. Carr's no doubt used to that. Another blitz blows up another damn stupid 3rd-and-long screen pass. Defenses know that's coming - quit running it!
Bears at their 43. They lose two on first down before Wolfe nearly gets it all back with 11 on second down. Big blow for the Giants on the play as Jay Alford has to be carted off afterward. Hanie does not get there on the third down QB sneak. While Steve Spagnuolo thinks, Those crazy Bears, they go for it on 4th down at the Giant 46, and Kevin Jones gets it with about a 3-yard gain. Jeremy Clark gets a sack off a blown exchange on 2nd down, setting up third-and-11, where the useless swing pass for Rideau is useless for no gain. Brad Maynard's punt makes it to the 17 but he can't clear Heartbreak Hill.
Carr finds Hakeem Nicks for his first catch of the night but the Giants take an offside penalty instead.
Bradshaw off right tackle for 4, then a screen to him is a near disaster. Couldn't tell if they waved it
off or if it was a live ball because of a sideline interview with Forte. Bradshaw makes it a mute point, as we say in Missouri, with a 23-yard jaunt up the right sideline. A hold drives the Giants back to the 40, then a zone blitz blows up a quick out. Carr hits Darcy Johnson for 14 to make third down respectable. A PITCH TO BRADSHAW - what kind of stupid damn call is that? - comes up short, and there was an illegal shift anyway. Bears decline, hoping to see more supposed Pro Bowl work from Feagles.
I don't know what happened here - the Bears hand off once to Jones and it's suddenly third and 9.
Juaquin Iglesias makes a tough catch at the start of a smoke route and gets all the way out to the
33 with it to get the Bears out of the hole. 23-yard gain. The Giants hit Hanie's arm and he misses
a wide-open Kellen Davis as a result. He throws a slant for Knox well to high to usher in the punting team.
New QB Andre Woodson will drive from his 22. New RB Danny Ware gets nothing around left end. Then nothing up the middle. THROW THE SCREEN! THROW THE SCREEN! Huh, no, Woodson hangs in the pocket, then scrambles looking for something downfield, before finally getting sacked by Dusty Dvoracek.
Back to the Bears now at their 40 in what is surely the longest 3rd quarter in NFL history. Not That Adrian Peterson goes up the middle for 8 and appears to get the first down as the quarter finally ends.
End of 3rd quarter: Chicago 17, N.Y. Giants 3.
It's actually 3rd-and-6 to start the 4th. Not That Peterson came up a little short on 2nd down; then the line false-started. Then the line false-started again. 3rd-and-11. Viva preseason! Johnson breaks up a sideline pass for Iglesias, inspiring a punt.
Woodson gets the Giants out of the blocks by hitting Ramses Barden on a slant at the 35. Offsides puts them at the 40. Ware gains 15 on a pitchout left for another first down at the Bear 41. Illegal contact by Craig Steltz trying to stop Barden from running right by him gets the Giants 5 more. Probably saved a TD, though, Woodson was looking for him deep. 2nd-down screen to Ware is destroyed by DE/DT/KR Henry Melton. Pass to Ware comes up a couple of yards short. Steve Spagnuolo cannot believe the Giants are going for it, 4th-2 at the Bear 28. Ware gets it, gaining 3 over left guard. They don't get any farther, though, with David Tyree unable to pull down the 3rd down pass. I have just been inspired to place a wager that Tyree will be a Ram before the season is over. Maybe even before it starts. Woodson rolls right on 4th and 10 and throws a terrible pass back into the middle of the field that Josh Bullocks whiffs on due to the pick-sixes in his eyes. Bears ball anyway.
Not That Peterson up the middle for 14 to the 36. 7:30 left. The Bears are at Denver next week, where I'm sure the home crowd will be supporting and favorable, filled with fond memories of their times with former quarterback Cutler. Hanie hits Eric (J.) Peterman for a nice gain at the Giant 44. Hilarity ensues on 2nd and 13. Kenny Ingram blitzes, stops, stares at Hanie. Hanie freezes, stares at the Ingram. Ingram decides he'd better resume his blitz and gets Hanie for the sack. That's called poor pocket awareness, kids. 3rd and a mile. Bears wind up punting with 4:34 left.
Giants are at the 15 after the punt and a false start, then Ervin Baldwin (the long lost Baldwin brother) drops Woodson for a sack inside the 5. Screen to D.J. Moore gets almost 20 and almost a first down. 4th and 1 for the Giants at their own 23. ANOTHER false start makes it 4th and 6 at the 18 and time for a punt. Feagles has got to be begging for a camp leg now. Especially when Derrick Kinder returns the punt 41 yards. Just following his blocks. He never really reaches top speed or ever has a Giant near him until Feagles gets flattened trying to make a play on him.
This game must really be over - the Bears feel comfortable enough to put the worst player so far this preseason, Brett Basanez, in at QB. 2:00 warning after a couple of runs, a trend I hope Lovie continues.
The Bears try to grind it out, but the Giants take over on downs with 1:10 left. On 3rd-10, Woodson finds Nicks all alone behind the Bears secondary for 54 up the sideline. Hicks' speed wasn't exactly impressive there. 1st-10 at the Bears 19. Pretty throw by Woodson earlier, btw. A Bullocks blitz forces Woodson to settle for a short pass to Barden on 3rd-10 again, leaving a 4th-and-4. Woodson throws behind TE Travis (Bend It Like) Beckum in the end zone to end that scoring threat, and effectively, the game, as Chicago kneels it out.
Final score: Chicago 17, N.Y. Giants 3.
MVP: The Bear offense was a mile different with Matt Forte in the backfield than it was without him up in Buffalo. 10 touches for 67 total yards, with a 32-yard TD, are plenty justification for this game's game ball.
What did we learn: Pisa Tinoisamoa and Orlando Pace both look good with their new teams. Cutler wasn't bad but sure got away with some forced throws. Earl Bennett looks like he's starting to catch on. Disappointing night for the Giant run defense, but the Bears actually fared worse. Brandon Jacobs' performance might get lost here; he looked dominant right from the start. The Giants fell far behind because of third-down woes on offense; specifically, they couldn't handle the blitz. Chicago came up with one big defensive play after another on 3rd down. Lovie Smith's bend-but-don't-break defensive philosophy is in midseason form, while Eli doesn't appear to have that 3rd down target he can rely on yet to replace Plaxico Burress.
Up next: Game 5 of 5, the Bay Area Bowl, Raiders vs. Whiners.
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